Pay rises for AFL executives far outstrip player wage increases

RAMPANT wages growth at AFL House has significantly outstripped the rises in player pay over the past decade.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan and chairman Mike Fitzpatrick. Picture: Kylie Else

RAMPANT wages growth at AFL House has significantly outstripped the rises in player pay over the course of the past two collective bargaining agreements.

Despite earning far less than predecessor Andrew Demetriou in the final years of his reign, Gillon McLachlan’s $1.7 million pay packet in 2015 is a 77 per cent increase on the chief executive’s wage of a decade before.

In that 10-year period, the average wage for a footballer on a senior list rose from $193,000 to just over $300,000 last year — an increase of about 56 per cent.

Including rookies who are left out of AFL player pay data, the average pay for an AFL player last year was $270,000.

Both groups have enjoyed better wage growth than the average Aussie worker, who is on $81,000 — up 42 per cent since 2006.

A carving up of the game’s rising riches is at the centre of pay talks between league chiefs and the game’s 818 players.

Players are demanding a set percentage of the game’s revenues as part of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement to run from next year.

The AFL Players’ Association has put the percentage plan to the AFL but has not yet received a formal response.

CEO pay reached its zenith in 2013, when salary and bonuses for former boss Demetriou topped a whopping $3.8 million.

Demetriou’s bonus money was for longevity, inking a then-record broadcast agreement and included his performance in negotiating the last pay deal with players — when he saw off the players’ first push for a set percentage of revenue.

Season 2015 was McLachlan’s first full year in charge.

He and Demetriou split $3.3 million for performing the chief executive role in 2014.

AFL data shows only four players earned more than $1 million in 2015.

Only 53 of the game’s 800 players earned as much or more than the average AFL executive’s wage last year.

The league has a team of about 10 highly-paid executives, who shared $6.2 million in pay last year.

The AFL’s wages bill has exploded since 2006 when the league and its controlled entities employed just 250 people with a wages bill of $23.5 million.

In 2015, the AFL and its consolidated companies — which include state bodies — employed 669 at wage cost of $77.7 million.

The head count of the AFL itself had grown to 345 and $45 million in wages, up from 125 staff in 2006.